Songwriting: Looking Glass Road

Today we made some progress on mixing some of the tunes that have been recorded over the past months including the last three (from last weekend). I awoke with the missing lyrics for Looking Glass Road; and grabbing my trusty pen and paper before I got out of bed, managed to jot them down before they faded away.

The unconscious mind has such a great way of putting things right in front of your face. I’m still amazed at how I often miss such obvious stuff, even when I generally feel pretty intune – I can still be so unaware!

The opening line of Looking Glass Road goes “I took a left turn at midnight“… I’d been singing it without noticing the symbolism – Left being representative of the unconscious part of ourselves, directionally widdershins, (and of course my being left handed has made me ever conscious of the non-conformity of left-handed individuals)… and midnight being the obvious connotation with the witching hour, and end of the old day and the magical moment when something brand new is about to happen. How could I write the line, sing it, and not be conscious of that stuff? It’s just hilarious!

“Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.” -Irish Proverb

Of course, sometimes “left” is just a direction, and “midnight” is just a random time – but in this case, the song is based upon a life changing experience and a practice that I regularly use to expand my consciousness, so in this case, the symbolism is correct. And so obvious 🙂

Anyway, the rest of the song presented itself when I awoke, and the lyrics are now complete. Which means I can record the final vocal for it pretty soon…I’m really pleased with the sound of the song so far. It’s joyful and fun, yet has that running symbolism that I so love to put into the songs (for those who are on the same wavelength and enjoy that sort of thing!)

The songs written in dreams are some of my faveorites; but pretty much any song that seems to “write itself” feels like its my best work. No struggling for rhymes or subjects; I’ve long ago learned to let go and wait rather than force songs as the quality is just much better. Examples of this kind of writing might be songs like Wayside and Jewel of the Realm, as well as Mushroom Sky.

There are, of course, writers who work consciously on their tunes, but for me, the flow is the best. Often a riff that Brian plays will just make a scene unfold in my imagination, and I simply dwell in it and sing from there.

A bunch of new ones are being written now, and we are determined to get all the recordings mixed quickly now. This past season with the mixing bottleneck has been frustrating for all of us, and I know it’s been so for some of you, too!. 🙂 But the energy feels different now, and we’re riding the wave of change into some new directions.